Rev. Philemon Fowler Sturges

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Source: History Morris County New Jersey, Volume II, Lewis Publishing Co., 1914

A man of earnest and devoted Christian spirit, and an influential leader in every movement of the higher life of the community, the Rev. Philemon F. STURGES occupies a conspicuous position as the rector of St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Morristown. Trained by a novitiate in the institutional work of the famous parish of St. George’s, in New York City, under the inspiring guidance of Dr. RAINSFORD, Mr. STURGES brought to the Morristown church the discipline of hard work amongst the poor, and the enthusiasm for the spreading of the church’s message, which he had gained from that contact with realities. In a town which though nominally a city, does not have to face the problems of modern industrial poverty and its attendant evils the work of the church is free to expend its energies upon the larger community of the State, and upon the crowed conditions called into being by the too rapid development of neighboring manufacturing centres. To this work Mr. STURGES has directed the activities of his people, and great good outside of their own bounds has resulted from the efforts of his parish.

Philemon F. STURGES was born November 3, 1875, at Utica, New York. He is the son of Edward STURGES, who was born in Mansfield, Ohio, February 1, 1829, died November 19, 1899. Edward STURGES was a dealer in lumber at Mansfield and in New York City. He was a descendent of John STURGES, born in England in 1624, who had come to this country and founded the family that bears his name. Judge Jonathan STURGES, a descendent of this man, was born in 1740, at Fairfield, and his house having been destroyed by British troops in 1779 all records of the family antecedent to his time were lost. The mother of Mr. STURGES is Anna S. (FOWLER) STURGES, who was born in Elmira, New York, April 19, 1845, and is still living in Chicago, Illinois. She traces her ancestry also, to colonial times being descended from Joseph FOWLER, born August 16, 1697, in Worcester county, Massachusetts.

Mr. STURGES received his early education in Germany, being sent when a young boy to the Real Gymnasium, at Frankfurt. After the thorough preparation of this German school he returned to the United States and matriculated at Yale University, receiving his degree of B.A. with the class of 1896. He had already made the decision to enter the Christian ministry and he now entered the Episcopal Theological School at Cambridge, and after completing the required course took his degree of B.D. He was fortunate, upon leaving the divinity school, in securing an appointment as the first assistant in the working parish of old St. George’s Church, New York, where for years past a veritable school of prophets had been in operation under the guidance of the rector of the parish, and where the work was done along the broadest and most efficient as well as most beneficent Christian lines. Here he remained from 1900 to 1903 when he received the call to his present charge. An energetic, resourceful, and devoted man, his success has been attested by the growth of his congregation which numbering four hundred communicants when he came has now increased to six hundred and fifty. Mr. STURGES is a Mason and a member of the Royal Arcanum. In his political convictions he is a Republican.

He married, June 4, 1902, Maria POTTER, at New York City. She was born at Schenectady, New York, and is the granddaughter of Dr. Eliphalet NOTT, president of Union College, a post later held by her father, Dr. Eliphalet Nott PORTER. Mr. and Mrs. STURGES have three children:

Philemon Fowler, Jr., born August 12, 1903;
Katrina, February 14, 1907;
Mary Potter, December 21, 1911.

This biography was transcribed by John Cresseveur (1949-2003).